The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-08-07
4 DAY AT NEWSTEAD ABBEY
Visit to the Venerable and Honored
Home of Lord Byron's Ancestors.
History of the Famous Pile-Its Public-Spir-
tied Owner of To-Day-The Treasures 1t
Contains and Its Clustering Memories.

staff Correspondence of the indianapolis journal.
ENGLAND, July, 1SS7.-There could not have
been more ideal day than the one upon
which / started for Newstead Abbey.
rain during the night had laid the dust.
freshened the hedges, washed the turf, and
added a new fragrance to the flowers that
gemmed the roadside and bloomed in wild luxu-
Rance in the forests Harvest is in its full ripe
ness, and the air was heavy with the scent of
the new mown hay, tossed by the revolving
rakes to the curing rays of a warm sun. had
written to Col. William Frederick Webb. tho
present proprietor of the Abbey. for permission
to visit it, but not having heard Wa started with
reliance upon American Roadway and English
courtesy. Newstead is ten miles from Noting
ham, reached by train TO a station OF
that name, and thence by a walk for about
mile, the most of the way through the park
grounds. We disappointed. At
the inn near the station We found the
landlady provided with tickets of admission for
five persons upon any one day, the Abbey being
opened to visitors only upon three days of the
week. Three had been promised to a party who
came out the previous day and could not obtain
entrance, and this left two for myself and
friend The ticket was made out for ''Mr. H
and party" and so found myself at the head of
four ladies. with whom the tour made.
ought to say just here that returning
to Nottingham 1 found a note and
ticket from Colonel Webb who hap
pened to be in London His courtesy in
opening the Abbey to visitors, and the manner
in which he has expended and is expanding
princely fortune in maintaining the domain, are
worthy the thanks of everyone to whom Ne W.
stead is venerable and honored. A short dis
hrin IN
the lodge marking the entrance to the Abbey
grounds, which embrace about four thousand
of beautiful wooded lands, Newstead being
in the heart of Sherwood Forest, famous in
song and story for its noble oaks and its identi
fcation with Robin Hood. Newstead dates from
ITO, when Henry the Second gave it to the
monks of st. Aurtine. That one of the
witnesses to the charter Godfrey, Arch
deacon of Canterbury. fixes the date beyond
question 1t in to the possession of the Byrons
in 1910. the first of the name, Sir John Byron,
known little Sir John with the great beard"
and whose portrait hangs within the Abbey walls.
The great grandson of 'Great Beard was made a
lord, for distinguished services to Charles.
Readers of Byron will remember the poem in
which he descants upon the bravery of his ances-
tors particularly at Edge Hill and Marston
Moor The abbey estates conhsca.sd
Second The fifth Lord Byron, known the
wicked lord" was the great uncle of the poet.
and under him both buildings and CROWDS
were sadly used He down oaks
without number. killed the deer in the park I'M
til venson hung plenty sheep in the sham
bles of Mansfield. One noble old tree survives
the wretch's vindictive spite, just at the
trance to the manor. and is a speaking mon ument
to his infamy Byron and his mother were living
in comparative poverty at Aberdeen when this
great-uncle died without issue, and the lad of
six became the sixth lord and the nheritor of
the estate. Legend still tells of his arrival at
the Abbey. The mother, affecting to be gnor-
ant, asked the lodge woman what that estate
and who was the owner The
that it Newstead. and ''they say that lit
tie boy in Aberdeen owns it" The nurse. hold
ing the child cried out. ''And this is him, God
bless him" So runs the story of his introduce
ton to a place which his genius has made more
famous than even the venerable memories of its
clustered cells or the deeds of war which earned
the Byron family the honor of a peerage The
young lord was about twenty years of age when
he took up his residence at the Abbey. He found
it greatly dilapidated. and devoted all his slen-
der means to it's repair. Byron greatly de-
voted to Newstead; his writings full of feel
ing illusions to it's glory and its decay. One of
his earliest poems. and which seems best to de-
scribe it even as it now appears, begins:
Newstead fast falling Respondent dome!
Religions shrine repentant Henry's prde
OF warriors monks and danes the clustered tomb.
Whose pensive shades around thy ruins glide
Hail to thy pile more honored in the fall
Than modern warriors in their pillar'd state;
Proudly majestic frowns thy vauted Hall,
Scowlng defiance in the blasts of fate"
Byron wrote his mother that he would not part
from Newsteao for the finest fortune in Eng
To- nd Int in aac han ha IL IN
Colonel Widman, with whom be had been a
schoolmate at Harrow. for El00, 900, and then
became, practically, fugitive and vagabond
on the face of the earth, ending his sad and
tragic life at Missolonghi. Greece in the flush of
early manhood. Colonel Wildman was devoted
to the Abbey and to the memories of Byron.
He spent f300, 600 in enlareing and restori ng
the estate, and promised TO Byron that he should
be buried here. Colonel Wildnan died
IN 1852 and his widow transferred the property
to Colonel Webb. who is GLOWING his predeces-
sors plans without regard to the amount of
money. He has added seventeen thousand
acres to the grounds, and has spent large sums
in restoring the buildings in strict architecture,
conformity to the time of their constru ction
This design is carried out in every DETAIL even to
the gardens, which are maintained just as the
monks laid them out, that when you walk
through them you transported at least
seven centuries backward
To return to the walk, however. After pass-
ing the lodge gate you are within the domain.
every part of which is vocal with Byron. So
imperious is the sway of mind over matter tn at
all the money of the late and present princely
owners merely makes them the custodians and
the warders of an almost i'm pecunious poet. Col
Wildman was distinguished soldier; he wore a
Waterloo medal; Colonel Webb has won his way
to such honor chivalric arms give, and the
first floor of the Hall is filed with trophies of his
proves. He was also the friend of Livingstone,
and here the great traveller and missionary and